2013 Reads: Fifty {Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn}

I guess it's time I finally finished up the reviews of the books I read in 2013, wouldn't you say? So, here it is, the last book of 2013: Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

I think it's safe to say that you have some sort of idea about what you're getting into when you pick up one of Gillian Flynn's novels. Even if you haven't read one of her books before.

Maybe not exactly what the story you're about to read is about, exactly. But that you're in for a crazy, suspenseful, and twisted ride.

Much like with Gone Girl, I finished this book unsure about if I actually liked what I had just read. Or, maybe, I wondered how if I did like it what that had to say about me. That sentence will make a lot more sense if you've read one of her books. Promise.

WHAT WAS WRITTEN

Camille Parker has inscribed the words of her life all over the contours of her body. Her past haunts every moment of her waking life - enough that she spent some time in a mental hospital. Now that she has checked herself out, she is seemingly on a fast track back.

The newspaper she works for - a second-rate, local daily paper - wants to send her back to her hometown for a story. Back to the world she so desperately has tried to leave behind. She returns reluctantly to cover the deaths of two local girls. 

Once home she is confronted by everything that went wrong with her childhood. Her mother, a narcissistic and neurotic hypochondriac, is unimpressed by her return. And her half-sister, a thirteen year old and beautiful girl, who she barely knows might just be the in she needs on the inner workings of her hometown. 

Once she steps foot back inside her family's Victorian mansion everything that she has fought so hard to forget comes flooding back. A tragedy which shaped her childhood and marked the rest of her life is unfolding before her eyes and she's not sure she can keep it together long enough to crack the story of the dead girls. As she identifies more and more with the girls she is investigating, Camille realizes that she needs to confront her own past in order to make sense of the present. 

WHAT MY BRAIN HAS TO SAY ON THE MATTER

Oh!My!God!

I wasn't sure Gillian Flynn could throw me for a loop again after Gone Girl. I was convinced that I would be able to pick up all the signs that she was laying down - that I was aware of her tricks now.

But man, I was not prepared for what happened in this book. Flynn got me again - and she got me good.

It's hard to talk about her books without giving too much away. And I do not want to give a moment of this book away. The way the little secrets and bits of information drop into your lap at exactly the right moment so you're forced to reevaluate everything you thought you already knew about the story. Those wtf?! moments? Those are the moments I read her books for. And I wouldn't want to deprive anyone from a single one of those moments - or potentially reveal the moment for them.

And if you've read this book already you know exactly which moment I'm talking about.

One thing I really love about this book (and yes, maybe 'love' much like 'like' isn't exactly the right word, but it's the best I've got) is the characters. Flynn is marvelous at creating characters who are people more than they are characters. In this book she has completely succeeded at crafting authentic mean, nasty women. You know those type of women I'm talking about  - the grown up Mean Girls (promiscuous, violent, abusive, self-destructive, and more). And then similarly she is able to perfectly capture their offspring, the mean girls themselves. And those young women? Oh my god, they're even worse.

It's rare to see women portrayed as anything other than either heroines or victim. Instead Flynn casts them as a source of violence and evil within their community as well as the victims of that evil. Because, as we all know so well, women can be so mean - especially to other women. Men in this novel are only secondary - they're the pawns and the playthings of the women around them. And it's interesting to see that so accurately portrayed in this novel.

I would totally recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a wonderful thriller of a novel. Especially one which, in a few ways, seems to turn the genre on its head. Sharp Objects is not for the squeamish though - it's full of sex, drugs, and violence - it's truly not for the faint of heart.

It's kind of like watching a train wreck - you feel bad about watching, but you can't look away. I think Flynn has the literary corner of that market covered perfectly. 

THE NITTY GRITTY

Title: Sharp Objects

Author: Gillian Flynn

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Crime

Medium: Paperback, 254 pages

Publisher: Broadway Books (31 July 2007)

Date Read: 31 December 2013

Source: Christmas Gift

Recommended For: High School +, Mystery Lovers, Thriller Lovers

Challenges: Goodreads 

First Line: My sweater was new, stinging red and ugly. 

Favorite Line: The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you. 

Last Line: Lately, I've been leaning towards kindness. [whited out, for spoiler's sake]

2013 Reads: Forty-Eight (Page - Tamora Pierce}

I still think that Kel might just be my favorite of Tamora Pierce's characters, ever.

While not my favorite book she's written, I completely enjoyed this one of this series.

WHAT WAS WRITTEN

Keladry of Mindelan, the first girl to apply to train as a knight since Alana the Lioness, is finally a Page. She's finally on equal footing as the rest of her class - equal to the boys in all things. However, she still has three years before she can become a squire and train at the side of an established knight.

Those three years? They're not going to be easy for Kel: A lot of the other pages still want her to fail and go home. In this second installment of The Protector of the Small, Kel continue to stands up to bullies, mean older sisters, and her training master.

WHAT MY BRAIN HAS TO SAY ON THE MATTER

One thing I really appreciate about Tamora Pierce as an author is her commitment to her story. She brings together such a fun and interesting story, but tells it in such a simple way that there is a certain honesty that comes from her prose. You never have to stop and think about what's going on in the story, instead you become completely wrapped up and absorbed by the tale. It's the mark of a wonderful author, in my opinion, and especially for an author focused on a younger audience.

I still think Kel is a brilliant character.  Yes, this falls into the framework of your standard hero tale - Kel has to battle the odds to achieve her goal of becoming a knight of Tortall. She has to continually prove herself above and beyond any of her classmates simply because of her sex. And she does it gracefully and with an effort to show anyone who may question her that she is deserving of her rank. She is kind and compassionate and one of the most selfless heroines I've read in a long time. Kel is an admirable hero to any young reader. Or any not-so-young reader.

Lasalla is a wonderful addition to Kel's life; such a means to highlight Kel's goodness and her devotion to those around her. Lasalla had a difficult past and is tentative and shy around everyone in the castle - even Kel at the beginning of the book. It was lovely to watch her open up to Kel and to see their friendship bloom over the course of the story. Similarly, you can't help but love the addition of Jump, the mangy, ugly dog, and the birds who become a part of Kel's life. And her friends who we get to spend more time with from the last book. Particularly Neal, who is still hilarious and all sorts of wonderful.

Joran still gives me the creeps - especially since he seems to be acting all proper and reformed. As an adult this was a total neon sign pointing at him saying "this guy is totally going to be trouble later on!" I'm not sure if I had read this at the targeted age if I would have picked up on it - I think I would have, but who knows. But he was also such a jerk in the previous novel that you go into this book completely inclined to hate him not matter what - even if he truly had reformed his opinion on Kel's presence.

The major drawback of the novel for me was pacing. This book covers the entire four years of Kel's training as a page - a section for each year of her time at court. I understand that it has to be this way to move the story on (as the next book covers her time as a squire and the last book is about her time as a knight). The other option was a book for each year - and while I love Kel, that would not have been the most exciting or interesting series of books. While I understand and appreciate why it moved at the pace it did, I couldn't help but want it to slow down.

Despite that, it's an excellent addition to an amazing series. The Protector of the Small is still, in my opinion, the best series I've read from Tamora Pierce so far. She is not afraid to confront difficult topics in her books, but she approaches them with a tender hand. In Page we see abuse, bullying, death, and discrimination - but they're all discussed in a way that a younger reader can process and learn something from them instead of being slapped in the face by them. It takes a talented writer to handle tough issues in such a positive way.

If you haven't read this series, you really ought to get your hands on these books. 

THE NITTY GRITTY

Title: Page (Protector of the Small #2)

Author: Tamora Pierce

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy

Medium: Hard Cover, 272pp

Publisher: Random House Books For Young Readers (23 May 2000)

Date Read: 23 December 2013

Source: Borrowed From The Library

Recommended For: Middle School +, Fantasy Lovers, Those Who Love Strong Female Protagonists

Challenges: Goodreads,

First Line: Fall that year was warm. 

Favorite Line: If arrogance were shoes, he'd never go barefoot.

Last Line: Her mysterious benefactor had written, "Gods all bless, Lady Squire." [whited out, for spoiler's sake]

2013 Reads: Forty-Five {First Test - Tamora Pierce}

I tend to go on a Tamora Pierce binge: once I've put my hands on one of her novels I have to keep reading them. I'm not seeing this as a problem, though. More of just a simple, observable fact. 

Because, First Test? I can tell I am going to love Kel and this series as a whole. This could be Pierce's best series yet. 

WHAT WAS WRITTEN

No girl had taken up the king's decree that girls had the same right to train to become a knight as boys. The decree was passed after Alana, The Lioness, became Tortall's first ever Lady Knight after years of pretending to be a boy. 

But after ten years after the decree this is about to change. Keladry of Mindelan is the first girl to follow in the Lioness' footsteps. Or, at least, she is the first girl to try, as everything and everyone seems to be aligned against her. Including a probationary year at the brginning of her training; something which a boy has never had to face in their training.

But Kel is going to do everything in her power to show Tortall exactly what girls are capable of. Together with her band of friends - knight, animal, and mysterious benefactor - Kel sets out to help pave the way for female knights. 

WHAT MY BRAIN HAS TO SAY ON THE MATTER

I thought I loved Alana most as a leading female, and then Daine came along. And then I thought I loved Daine most as a leading female, and now there's Kel. It's going to be hard to oust Kel from that spot though. One of my friends has repeatedly told me that Kel was her all-time-favorite of Pierce's characters, and I can completely see why.

As a whole, this story was a good one. It wasn't great, but it has laid a remarkable foundation for the rest of the series to stand upon. At first glance it seems like a very blatant rewrite of Pierce's first quartet about Alana. But then, it's not. And Pierce does this in such a brilliant way. Because Alana had everything going for her - her magic, the Goddess, and more. And she doesn't struggle through her training because of her sex - to her peers she's just one of the guys. The Protector of the Small is nothing like the Lioness Quartet.

Because we have Kel. And Kel is a brilliant and stubborn character who I totally get her in ways that a lot of Pierces' other characters have escaped me. Kel is vulnerable because she is female and because everyone knows that she's female. The old ways of Tortall are against her - men are knights, and that is that. Where the guys have to prove themselves once, Kel has to prove herself ten times (or more). She is bullied and hazed and many are trying to force her to leave. However, Kel quickly proves that she is as good, if not better, than the boys.

I cannot wait to continue on with this series. I'm excited to watch Kel grow up and to see what becomes of Neal and the rest of her friends. I can tell this is going to be a great series, and I'm excited for that. 

THE NITTY GRITTY

Title: First Test (Protector of the Small #1)

Author: Tamora Pierce

Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Young Adult

Medium: Paperback, 240pp

Publisher: Random House (7 June 1999)

Date Read: 16 December 2013

Source: Borrowed From The Library

Recommended For: Middle School +, Fantasy Lovers, 

Challenges: Goodreads, 

First Line: Alana, The Lioness, the King's Champion, could hardly contain her glee. 

Favorite Line: "Romance? Isn't that love stuff?" she asked finally. "It's more than just love. It's color, and fire. You don't want things magnificent and filled with grandeur," he said, trying to make her understand. "You know, drama. Importance. Transcendent Passion."  

Last Line: On it was written, "Goddess bless, lady page." [whited out, for spoiler's sake]